For 17 years I have studied, trained and honed my skills as a nutritionist. I have learned how to read blood tests for preventative analysis, I have attended conferences on the connection between functional medicine and human nutrition, I have written a hundred articles, worked with hundreds of clients. I have a library of books that I have read on healing, the science of the human body, the mind and spirit. I have written my own book. I have gone as far into the clinical world as I need to go. Now it is time to immerse myself in my second but most favoured love. Creativity, here I come… again.

When I became a life coach in 2003, I had a vision. I knew that I was going to coach on weight loss, the kind that transforms you from the inside out. I knew that because that was how I lost weight, by altering how I spent my time and energy, by learning how to be creative. Creativity gave me the freedom to choose how I focused my thoughts and feelings. It transformed me from a place of angst to one that was filled with joy and passion. Twenty pounds fell off of me without me really trying. It was easy because food held less interest than the other seductors – photography, free dance and writing.

Ten years after initiating that vision, I’m returning to where I am most at peace myself. I’m weaving the nutritional science into the larger web of nourishment. The heart of nourishment is in the soul. It can be read by our emotions – by how happy, peaceful and richly attuned we are to our senses.

One of the insights that I’ve gained from my years of clinical work is that just about every person out there, myself included, is dealing with an imbalanced stress physiology. My clients seem to understand the concept of stress reduction but most have a hard time enacting on it. I can relate. I have tools that I know work and still it sometimes takes all my momentum to tear myself away from the computer (and lately, from the options on Netflix) to dance to a couple songs or draw in my art journal.

But I’m committed. 2014 here I come, armed with my coloured pencils, an extensive music library, space to dance and a vision for taking my clients and groups into the heart of nourishment. Join me. Get creative. No skill required.